Before Watchmen: Ozymandias #6 Review

Len Wein tries to tie together a number of the Before Watchmen titles in Ozymandias #6, pulling from The Comedian, Dr. Manhattan, and Moloch as well as Moore’s original storyline. Unfortunately, there isn’t much space to insert new events between those sources, so Wein and artist Jae Lee explicitly portray scenes that we had already been apprised of elsewhere. It’s a technique that J. Michael Straczynski employed to strong effect in Dr. Manhattan #4; however, Wein’s survey of several of these moments (the island, Comedian’s discovery, Ozymandias’ attack) in this issue doesn’t add anything new.

Whereas JMS gave us an emotionally affecting window into events that we could previously only guess at, this book dutifully chronicles events that fail to deviate from our expectations without cultivating a meaningful sense of insight, immediacy, or import.

Furthermore, it seems that Wein’s understanding of the Manhattan/Ozymandias dynamic contradicts the JMS rendition released only two weeks ago. Does Dr. Manhattan know what Veidt is up to or is there a tachyon haze that keeps him from figuring it out? Wein’s characterization of Ozymandias feels off in general here, as he fails to supply the character with his trademark biting wit to go with the haughtiness. Instead, the dialog from the mastermind and his supporting cast feels uninspired.

Lee applies himself to instilling the story with his characteristic sense of elegance, but, once again, there isn’t enough meat on the bone to allow his storytelling to impact the book. There are, however, quite a few pretty pictures to be found here, with Lee’s sense of light and shadow and his eye for subdued but interesting color combinations forming this issue’s primary value.

It may seem a small difference between this book and more successful issues of Before Watchmen, but it is an important one. While those issues either invented entirely new stories or portrayed scenes implied in the original Watchmen in an interesting, meaningful way (thereby illustrating that we didn’t really know the things we thought we knew), this book just laces together things of which we already had accurate understandings. As such, this story is just a paraphrase of the original series and is one of the weaker installments of the Before Watchmen initiative.

Poet Mase is a regular contributor to IGN. Follow Poet on Twitter @PoetMase, or post a message on his IGN profile PoetMase.

Source : ign[dot]com